current and emerging public health hazards - Plumbing Industry ...

1.HISTORICAL OVERVIEWOF PLUMBINGTo get an appreciation of the role that plumbing has played in disease prevention,it is worth looking at a brief history of plumbing. Sophisticated plumbing systems,using copper and bronze piping, irrigation systems and flushing toilets, can befound as early as 2500 BC. 6In 1700 BC, a highly advanced water supply and drainage system supplying water through a 2-3centimetre terra cotta pipe was laid beneath the floor of the Minoan Palace of Knossos on the island ofCrete. The pipe provided water for fountains and taps of marble, gold and silver that jetted hot and coldrunning water. 7 The palace also had the first flushing ‘water closets’ or toilets, with a wooden seat anda small reservoir of water for flushing.The most famous example of public plumbing system ingenuity was the Roman’sCloaca (named after the goddess Cloacina) Maxima, built between 800 BC and735 BC. 8 Used primarily to collect rainwater but not to pipe out sewerage(gentry used chamber pots and the general public used bath-house facilities),the Cloaca Maxima enabled the Romans to construct great baths and recreationcentres, with water supplied from kilometres away.In Sri Lanka in 400 BC the Buddhist monasteries had to manage the sanitationactivities of thousands of monks. They utilised stacked urine-pots designed tofilter their contents until there was only pure water in the lowest container.The sewage was then used for fertilising crops – as was the case across most of Asia. 9In the Dark Ages, medieval privies, or the euphemistic garderobes (wardrobes forundressing), replaced flushing toilets in wealthy households throughout Europe. 10The privy was built within the wall, with a vertical shaft below a stone or woodenseat. The waste would discharge into a moat or pit below. The waste was notflushed away and would have to be dealt with later.The poorer classes used a glass urinal or metal chamber that was emptied through doors or windowsonto the street, leading to the accumulation of human waste on the streets. For example, in 1671 inBerlin the piles of waste got so high that a law was passed that forced all peasants visiting from thecountry to take some with them when they left. 11 People living in the poorer tenements had no runningwater and relied on rationed sources drawn by pumps.6. M Black and B Fawcett, The Last Taboo, Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation Crisis, Chapter One, 20087. M Black and B Fawcett, 20088. M Black and B Fawcett, 20089. M Black and B Fawcett, 200810. Plumbing and Mechanical, The Plumber – History of Plumbing, July 198911. M Black and B Fawcett, 20086